Psychology

How To Win Any Argument (Part 4)

Here's how I roll: my wife loves three-dollar bagels from the Sunday farmers' market. And so she says, "let's get a loaf of bread, some flowers, and a flat of strawberries!" When we roll home with only bagels, I feel I've won ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Jul 27 2010 - 10:08am

Einstellung Baby! Why Experts Fail

When you woke up this morning were you an expert water measurer? No? Well, you will be after reading this article. But that might not be a good thing: experts are sometimes worse off than regular Janes and Joes. To see why, first we need to wire your brai ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Aug 7 2010 - 7:09pm

Ouija Tweet Brain Interface

The responsibility of Twitter updates got you down? D'you think about tweeting but never actually get around to it? Never fear, Adam Wilson is here. The University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering grad student removes the clunky and outdat ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Aug 16 2010 - 1:33am

Neural Cause Of The Waterfall Illusion

Look at a waterfall for 30 seconds. Now look at something stationary. The stationary object will appear to drift upwards. The same phantom movement is true after stepping off an airport walkway: if you close your eyes and stand still, you should continue ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Aug 21 2010 - 11:58am

Strip-Search Prank Call

Do you remember Stanley Milgram's famous authority experiments that found participants were willing to shock the living hell out of people if ordered to do so? If you’re not familiar with this, just google “Milgram experiment” and get ready for some s ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Sep 19 2010 - 10:26am

Personality Of Science 2.0 Users Analyzed

The following is a horoscope based on the specific personality type common to users of Science20.com. After reading, please comment your evaluation of its accuracy. Then come back tomorrow for post discussing the methodology of accurately modeling group pe ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Sep 25 2010 - 9:35am

Personality Of Science 2.0 Users: Results

Did you find yesterday's personalized horoscope spookily accurate? Isn't it amazing how precisely the websites you visit allow description of who you are? In fact (as many of you guessed), it's a trick. ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Sep 26 2010 - 10:42am

How To Punk Memory: The Brainworks Of Misremembrance, False Memories, And Alternate Realities

In the next three days, I'll out the work mostly of Elizabeth Loftus, who describes how and when our memories misfire—in cool and interesting ways—ways, you can use to create the realities you want in unsuspecting friends and family. Part I: When we ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 2 2010 - 1:08pm

How To Punk Memory: The Brainworks Of Misremembrance, False Memories, And Alternate Realities (Part Deux)

Yesterday I posted about how Elizabeth Loftus is able to Jedi mind trick our interpretations of memories, but what about creating entirely new memories? Oh yeah, baby. Actually, making a false memory is pretty easy. Loftus describes a father convincing hi ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 3 2010 - 6:00am

How To Punk Memory: The Brainworks Of Misremembrance, False Memories, And Alternate Realities (Part Trois)

Okay, in the past two days we've seen that our memories are malleable. We can easily be made to misremember, and easily be made to adopt memories of things that never happened. But what actually goes on in our brains as we code bad information? Can w ...

Article - Garth Sundem - Oct 6 2010 - 4:50pm